Dashboard - Magnetic Fixings 🧲
Getting behind the dashboard of my Cobra was a real pain… Unscrew the lower trays, detach the vent hoses to reach the fixings, then reach up and under to unscrew the butterfly nuts, trying not to drop them (or the washers) into some lurking but hidden void.
Yes, there are many ways to fix a dashboard: and yes, I’ve been looking at many other Cobras and how the dash is fixed in those; and yes, I [arguably] settled on the more complex fixing method: and yes, when talking to other owners of a variety of marques, they have the same issues of getting behind their dashboards.
So… to make this a more pleasurable task [or is that a less traumatic task], I’ve replaced the butterfly fixings with some super magnets.
These are 60 x 13.5 x 5.0 mm neodymium magnets with an 80lb force, and are miniature marvels that are really attractive (excuse the pun 😆).
I mounted these strategically along the top rim of the body shell, and padded the gaps between them with a 5.0 mm rubber strip to even things out and to create a solid base for effective lateral contact along the whole top lip.
How: First, I attached the magnets to the top dashboard lip with some 3 mm flat-head, countersunk (FH) bolts.
Then I used steel plates for the magnetic bit of the equation, which I epoxied to the back of the dash blank. I kept the big-head bolts in place because they take the vertical weight and make excellent locator pins.
Issue: The magnets were too powerful, so I reduced the size of the metal plates to 1 cm. It was impossible to shift a plate of the same size (I experimented). Now I can remove the dashboard without dismantling the under trays, and without contorting or dropping the fixings in the bird’s nest that is my dash wiring… (Because I have no fixings 😂 😂 😂)
I’ve also made a tool to slip behind the top lip to gently pry the dashboard forward without scratching anything.
A simple flat hook covered with heat shrink.
